Gaggia New Classic

I purchased a Gaggia New Classic in August 2023 for about $710. For a premium home espresso machine at this price point, I expected a product that would be durable and free from premature corrosion, consistent with Australian Consumer Law expectations of acceptable quality. In 2025, I noticed rust forming above and around the water tank area.… Read more

Over time, the rust worsened instead of remaining cosmetic or superficial. Eventually, I decided to have the outer shell professionally powder coated to protect the machine and extend its life.

During that process, it became clear that corrosion was not limited to the external surface. There was also rust inside the casing, in areas that are not normally visible to a user. In my view, this raises concerns about the design and materials used in parts of the machine that are exposed to moisture during normal use, such as around the water tank and nearby internal surfaces.

From a usability point of view, the Gaggia New Classic can make good coffee and has a strong following, but my personal experience with premature rust and internal corrosion means I am not confident about its long‑term durability. Based on my experience, I would encourage potential buyers to carefully consider whether the build and finish meet their expectations for a machine at this price and to check how well the product’s durability is supported under consumer guarantees in practice.

This review is based on my personal experience and honest opinion of the product over time.

Great coffee machine not so great – 18/1/25I am changing my review, My gaggia has completely broken down after only 2yrs and 5months. I took it in as not pumping water properly and sprung a leak from back . Was told the boiler completely coroded and seal between steam wand and boiler broken and it would cost me upwards of $500 to get fixed and they would only guarantee for three… Read more

mths as likely to happen again. I descaled machine regularly and used daily i would expect an $800 coffee machine to last longer than this. I am so disappointed in the waste of $$$ that i would not recommend this machine to anyone. They tryed to tell me that it must be water where i live, i religiously used filtered water even when descaling. I was also told this version of machine has been known for this boiler problem and the new version has been changed and "shouldn't " suffer the same issues. Would I like to buy the new version at $900. I politely declined . 4/2/25 I also wrote to Gaggia and explained what had happened and as of this date have had no reply from them. I went back and read others reviews and this seems to have happened to other owners as well, and people seem to know the boiler was a problem, then why was it still being sold as a faulty product?

After owning at least 6 different coffee machines and constantly having to return them as would breakdown down just before or more often just after warranty ran out. I did lots of research and foundit all very confusing about what is a good coffee machine for me. So went to fantastic shop in leichhardt to talk to an expert. I came home with a Gaggia classic , Took some getting used to it but i love it now, i use it 4-5 times a day and get good coffee most of the time. Was really worried about cost and chance it would breakdown repeatedly, but its been 18 month so far so good. Have had problem with steam leaking from spout, took it back to shop they gave me tips on how to stop this happening and if you remember to do it does stop the steam and water leaking.

Great machine – Have had this Gaggia now for about 3 years and use it daily - if not multiple times per day. Great machine, and probably the best value for money entry prosumer / light commercial machine in the market. Quality is really good and makes a great coffee. Other than basic servicing - new seal - hasn't missed a bit. Yes compared to your Nespresso… Read more ·  1

machines and automatic machines, more work and cleaning, however it depends on what you are really after. If you want proper espresso grade coffee at the home, tough to beat. There is a big community out there for this machine also meaning lots of suggestions, tricks / tips and hacks.

I pair my machine with a Breville Smart Grinder Pro - probably as a combo, one of the lowest cost ways to enter this space, and I generally pretty happy with the grinder also (though I will be upgrading the grinder before I do the machine).

I made some upgrades to my unit via a precision basket and upgrade shower screen - these help, the precision basket was a game changer.

Likes: - Value for money - Very good build quality - 58mm group head - Slimline / compact - Quick heat up - Italian design / heritage

Dislikes - No PID - however hard at this price point - Milk steaming is average - No flow control - near impossible at this price point

Sturdy Machine and Great Espressos – The Gaggia Classic Pro was introduced in 2019 and is the third incarnation of the stainless-steel home espresso machines since 1991. I bought this a month ago off Gray’s auction site, as a possible present for one of my (adult) children, and it’s brushed up nicely. Auctions can be risky, particularly if the auction house’s definition of ‘working’… Read more

may not align with the purchaser; but I’ve bought several items off Gray’s and found them to be reputable.

What You Get ========== The Gaggia Classic Pro has a sturdy metal body; chrome brass group; three-way solenoid valve and good switches. The portafilter is a commercial standard 58mm and it’s made from chrome brass, which retains heat, however the handle is flimsy plastic. There are other signs that the Classic Pro is built to a price point with some cheap, plastic components. These are the drip tray, the cheap steam knob, dosing spoon and a laughable plastic tamp. Nevertheless, based on my prior ownership of Gaggia Classics, the components are in non-critical areas, tend not to break, and are cheap to replace if they do.

One point to make on the power switch is there are two types. The European one, which has the “ON” symbol within the OFF symbol and is flicked to turn the machine on and off. This European style of switch is on Classic Pros that turn off automatically after 20 minutes of inactivity. My model, however, has the American switch, where has the on/off symbols are separate, and requires you to manually turn the machine off.

The Classic Pro has a 100ml aluminium boiler, which may not sound a lot, but with a 1200w heating element it comes to temperature in five to ten minutes. It provides enough oomph for back-to-back brewing of espressos. It doesn’t have a PID, or Proportional-Integral-Derivative (which is a fancy way of saying temperature control), only thermostats; so, the temperature can vary. Thus, the amateur barista may wish to “temperature surf” whereby you cool the boiler down by running water through the group or steam wand; and then ‘catch’ the right temperature for your espresso as the boiler is re-heating. It’s a topic with a lot of online information, and if you buy a Classic Pro, then you may want to learn about it.

Finally, the water tank is 2.1 litres and can be filled from the front and the top. There are cutaways on both sides so you can see when to refill. During my time using Gaggia Classics – this is the third I’ve owned – I’ve found them to be very capable machines. You can get excellent espresso from a Gaggia, but you will need to make some modifications – particularly to the pressure at the group.

Bad Bits ====== All of which brings me to things I don’t like. The Gaggia, out of the box, is set to 15 bars of pressure at the pump. This is not ideal for top class espresso. The reason they did it was for the dual wall basket, but if you’re using a single wall basket it means you may have to grind a little coarser.

There’s not enough distance between the portafilter and drip tray to use scales and, finally, stainless steel Classic Pros are fingerprint magnets. It takes an age to clean them. I bought this at an auction and had little choice, but if you’re buying one new then remember they come in different colours.

As well as the dual wall basket, which are made for people who don’t use grinders and buy pre-ground coffee, it also has two single wall baskets. One for 16gm of coffee and the other for 7gm. These filter baskets for the coffee aren’t particularly good but can be replaced by an IMS or VST baskets. Likewise, the tamp is a horrible plastic thing you’ll want to replace sooner or later.

The good news is these failings are fixable. You can change the pressure from 15 bars to 9 bars by replacing a spring in the over pressure valve. although this means opening it up and invalidating your warranty if it’s new. Some people may be fine with this, but I suspect many won’t be. You can buy better filter baskets and, of course a better tamp.

Good Bits ======== The Gaggia Classic Pro is an excellent espresso machine. If you have the patience to learn how to brew correctly, and there are plenty of online resources on the Gaggia, then you will make espressos the equal of machines many times its price. I know. I have.

But the small boiler can make steaming challenging for lattes and cappuccinos. It can make one, maybe two, cappuccinos on the trot; but if more are needed, for example hosting a dinner, then it runs out of puff.

Maintenance ========= The Classic Pro requires regular backflushing and descaling to keep it in tip-top condition. The regularity of the descaling depends on the water hardness of your area. In Canberra our water is soft, so I descale once every couple of months; but in a hard water area every month (or even more often) may be needed. I use the Milano descale solution, which is recommended for the Classic Plus.

Conclusion ======== The Gaggia Classic Pro is an excellent espresso machine, and capable cappuccino maker. It is not as automatic as, for example, the Breville Bambino Plus – against which it is often compared since they are at similar price points – but, if mastered, will make outstanding espressos and if looked after, will last decades.

Good machine. Steep learning curve – I have had my Gaggia for 6 months now. The home espresso community is a large one and it's easy to go down a real rabbit hole of information with yeild, weights of water and mods etc. I just wanted to make a decent coffee at home consistently. The Classic does this well, however it takes a lot of practice. I went through about 500 grams of coffee… Read more ·  1

before I could get something drinkable and was beginning to wonder if I had made a terrible mistake in buying it. I stuck with it and now I can make a good coffee about 7 out of 8 times and the occasional average one. Don't be sucked in by YouTube clips of shots of hands making nice looking lattes with rosettas and nespresso ads of amazing cappuccinos - that simply isn't going to happen at first. They look great but it isn't that easy. That said you can make great coffee with good beans and a little practice. The machine itself is solid, well made and a good kitchen size. It is larger than the average nespresso machine. The distance between spouts and tray isn't large and a mug won't fit in there. I bought some quality cups from a coffee supply shop and they fit well. Overall a great machine at a reasonable price for those looking to lift their coffee game with an Italian machine.

Not disappointed at all – I upgraded to this coffee machine from an Breville 870 and although it's old-school looking, stubborn and even a bit ugly, it does make excellent coffee. With a few tricks, especially using it before the steam light comes on, I was surprised by the results I got. But the double-hole steam head I really dislike because it makes the milk swirl at… Read more ·  1

just the opposite angle to completely cancel out the processing, and one has to use a special angle to get the milk to swirl, yet the angle of the steam wand cannot be adjusted. So in the end I plugged the hole near the water tank with a toothpick and now I'm back to being a milk frothing master. With repeated practice, the quality of the coffee I make is now almost identical to that of a coffee shop, but for me it is such a blessing to have great coffee at home whenever I want.

Excellent for home user who doesn't need computerized, digital, or touch screen coffee machine – At this stage I am giving 5 stars for many things that this machine has to offer, only one thing that concerns me is the reliability of this machine as I only owned this one for only over 2 weeks ( i heard some previous style Gaggia classic last up to 13 years). I have used 2 other brand median price coffee machine since 6 years ago the infuser… Read more ·  1

last for 4 years until it started leak and power button played up and other Barista max only last for 10 months after 2 other replacement, I hope with Gaggia Classic NEW or PRO will outlast those machine that I previously owned so my investment will be paid off. me and my wife make 3-4 cups of coffee everyday in total

Coffee extracted quality and dosing: Coffee extraction result is excellent if you get the right grinder setting and amount of ground coffee in porta filter, I wasted 500gr coffee beans to get the perfect ground by trial and error. to me 1 shot porta filter (come with it) is to weak coffee result, double shot is to much so I used old porta filter from old machine that can hold 12gr ground coffee and the result is what i like, just perfect. if you don't mind about auto dosing for single or double shoot, this machine is the way to go as I said its not computerised machine, you will get used to about coffee dosing to your preference taste. note: you need SEPARATE grinder if you like freshly ground coffee every time or buy pre-ground coffee and may not have good coffee extraction and may not compatible with this machine, every coffee has different characteristic like how fine(ground) will it be for specific machine.

The look and size: not too big, nice and neat sit perfectly on the kitchen bench ( mine is stainless steel version).

steam is powerful but enough only to heat milk for 2 cups flat white and after that the steam will lose the pressure and in this case you need to refill/pump water to the boiler and wait until the steam ready again. if only the pump inject the water slightly in to boiler while steaming i am sure it will has endless steaming, never mind its not computerised and for home user. keep it as CLASSIC I love it.

drip tray and water tank are big enough for home user.

Watch the porta filter/ group handle rubber sealer in the group handle holder, some time porta filter can really hard to get in to group handle holder when the machine is hot, it is because the water is trapped behind the rubber seal and produce steam pressure when the machine hot and make the seal slightly pop out and the result even empty porta filter will not get in to group handle holder. If this happen what i do slide little knife to the side (outer side) of the rubber seal to release the pressure (be careful don't ruin the seal and watch out the steam pressure will burst from the side of the knife). overall it is excellent coffee machine, if you don't care about computerised coffee machine, this is the one! little work to get the right coffee result and you'll be amazed.

I bought this online with 12 month(monthly) coffee supply and get free Grinder Cunill Tranquillo electric.

Gaggia finally nails the brief, from good to great, though a bit late – Before I begin, I should state that this is my second Gaggia, I previously owned a Gaggia Coffee (discontinued) that lasted for 14 years. Though very similar to the classic, this new machine is better in almost every way. Domestically Gaggia had kind of fallen of the map over the past decade after stagnating and trying to cut corners (at least… Read more

according to reports/forums).

When my machine finally died a month ago I was going to buy a Breville like most of my office colleagues.

But then saw a report that there was a “new” classic machine which is made in Italy once again with some design improvements to boot. So bought one since longevity is important to me.

This new classic much quieter than my previous model. It has a selanoid valve which the Gaggia Coffee did not and makes clean up easier. Have yet to burn the coffee.

The single aluminium boiler while technically lower spec compared to steel, is by design as it is much faster to heat up. It heats up quickly from off/brewing and brewing/steam. About a minute to heat up and 40 seconds from brew to steam.

At work we have a Verona express, a dual boiler, midsize Italian commercial machine. That is a better machine overall but it is comparatively expensive, large, slow to heat and somewhat impractical for home use. The results are very similar though for a few coffees.

Pressure and heat on the Gaggia is good and consistent. Have managed good creama every time so far. It also comes with a “creama perfecto” device which works ok. But I prefer the standard baskets if you’ve got the right grind. It comes with three baskets so you’ve got options.

The steam wand is much better on this model than previous. Easier to clean and very performs well.

Note unfortunately Australia doesn’t get the European auto off safety function, so remember to turn it off when done.

When paired with a good grinder, the Classic is capable of making excellent coffee ... once you’ve mastered it which doesn’t take long. It is a bit more art than science with this one.

Overall these improved workhorse machines are relatively simple to maintain and operate. Cared for properly they last. But they are fairly pricey for a single boiler (in Australia anyway with fewer resellers these days). Hopefully Gaggia claims back some of it’s lost market share with this one. It deserves to.